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BOVINE 
TUBERCULOSIS 



BY 



GEORGE B. STARKWEATHER, F.R.G.S 









WASHINGTON 

THE BEACON PRESS 
1910 



:■" <■■:*% 



BOVINE 
TUBERCULOSIS 



BY 

GEORGE B. STARKWEATHER, F.R.G.S. 



" Thou madest man to have dominion over the works 
of Thy hands, Thou hast put all under his feet: all 
sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field" 



WASHINGTON 

THE BEACON PRESS 

1910 



*% 



% 




The Above Cut Shows the Highest Type 
of Cow Yet Produced. 

' ' De Kol Creamelle ' ' 

Is Held to be the Champion Milch Cow 

of the World, with a Record of 

5,000 Quarts of Milk in 100 Days. 






Copyrighted 1910 

By 
Paul Starkweather 



Gratefully Inscribed to the Memory of That 
Innocent, Martyr Throng of Ruminants 
Whose Patience, Industry and Fidelity 
Have Added So Materially to Our Nation's 
Wealth, and Whose Cruel Sacrifice Is a 
Standing Reproach to Our Vaunted Civili- 
zation 



The Beacon Press 



aims to publish nothing but what is 
essentially new and of vital interest. 
We live in a strenuous 
age, and manuscripts lack- 
ing brevity and conciseness 
will not be used by us. 

It is our rare good for^ 
tune to have secured con- 
trol of material — largely 
from this present author 
— which will speedily be 
converted into quite a 
library, something of the character, 
scope and importance of which can 
be inferred from the following tenta- 
tive classification and outline of sub- 
jects : 




A. Formidable Array of Facts which 
Conclusively Prove that a, Major 
Premise of Science Is Shockingly 
Erroneous. 



B. The Mammalia Transformable in 
Surprising Directions by Virtue 
of a Fortunate Discovery. — Zoo- 
logical Innovations. — " links " 
Long "Missed." — Simian Short 
Cuts. — Domestic Breeds Hecast. 



C. Sex Analyzed and Predetermined. 
Inestimable Advantages to Accrue 
from a Comprehension of this 
Principle in Nature. 



D. Definite Law of Constitutional 
Inheritance Clearly Established 
by Incontrovertible Facts. 



E. Heredity and Environment Placed 
in Their True Well-defined 
Spheres. — New Side Lights. 



F. Radical Revision of Ethnology. 
Racial Differences Traced and 
Proven to be Eliminable — Even to 
the Odor, Kinte and Color of the 
African. Science Must Avert the 
" Yellow Peril " and Solve Our 
Race Problems. 



G. Why Brunettes Abound. The Evo- 
lution of the Blonde. Causes 
and sure Signs of Transition 
from Former Class to the Latter. 



H. Cheering Facts for Those with 
Defective Eyes 9 Ears and Teeth. 
— Also for the Dipsomaniac and 
the Kleptomaniac. 



I. Eugenics and Biometry at Last 
Provided with a Broad, Scientific 
Foundation and with Abundant 
Materials for a Noble Superstruc- 
ture. 



J. Causes Discovered which Show 
the Necessity for Scientifically 
Revolutionizing Our Educational 
Institutions. 



E. Cerebral Dynamics and Size of 
Drain. Insanity and Genius 
Differentiated. How to Forecast 
Suicide and Apportion Responsi- 
bility. 



It. New Light upon Origin of, and 
Remedy for, Diseases. " White 
Plague " Fathomed — Radically 
Different from the Dovine Prob- 
lem in Three Particulars. The 
Crime of Pneumonia. 



M. Longevity at Will. Children's Dis- 
eases Avoidable and the Century 
Mark Attainable. Old Line Life 
Insurance Obsolescent. How to 
Figure at a Glance Ones " Expec- 
tation of Life." Quantity 9 s Rela- 
tion to Quality. Irrefutable Data. 



N. The True and False Regarding 
Temperaments, Physiognomy 
and Phrenology. Their Consti- 
tutional Dases and Evolution 
Elucidated. — Also the Philoso- 
phy of Telepathy, Personal Mag- 
netism and Clairvoyance 9 as well 
as How to Become Endowed 
Therewith. 



Foreword 

Upwards of three years ago the writer began his 
endeavors to get certain facts relative to dairy 
herds before the public, while engrossed with 
business matters of his own, but failed, and, 
later, being absent from the city at the time of 
the gathering of the International Tuberculosis 
Congress here, in September, 1908, the program 
was completed before his paper was reached. 

The aim of the present brochure is to make 
apparent to all, the criminal culpability which is 
involved in the cause of this most prevalent 
scourge, and to refer to a sure antidote, as well as 
to an adequate, permanent preventive. 

As soon as these three facts seem to be fairly 
grasped, the author stands ready to indicate, in a 
second paper, how the average cow-efficiency may 
be augmented fully thirty per cent. 

So far from having any desire to peddle nos- 
trums, his wish has ever been to donate all with-, 
out a dollar's profit, but he can not assume the 
role of philanthropist, and even if he could, his 
gifts would be slighted by the masses, and posi- 
tively spurned by those having vested interests 
which might be adversely affected. 

His purpose here, however, is not to impugn 
the motives of any. He does wish to be emphatic, 
nevertheless, in declaring that bovine tuberculosis 
can now be readily and effectually eliminated 
from the world if such is the general wish. 

G. B. S. 

" CORONALTA," 

Washington, D. C, 
April, 1910. 



Contents 








Foreword ..... 7 


Strange . . . 






9 


Government Circular 






9 


Menace in Milk 






10 


An English Summary 






11 


Bovine Tuberculosis 






13 


Modern Appliances 






15 


By Nature Immune 






16 


Victims of Greed 






18 


Respiration 






19 


Vaccination 






21 


Theories 






23 


Encouraging Prognosis 






. 26 


Later on 






28 


Pasteurization 






30 


Latest Government Report 




32 


Resolutions in Congress 






34 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 



Strange 

That in this specialized, scientific age a per- 
son from the outside, evidently old enough to 
know better, should presume to impose upon a 
busy world his opinions regarding a technical 
subject which to-day engrosses the brightest 
minds, and to expedite the solution of which 
philanthropists send hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to be spent in European laboratories ! 
The persistent prevalence of Tuberculosis in 
modern dairy herds, however, is one fraught 
with such momentous possibilities for evil to 
our common humanity, that the humblest 
efforts should not be despised. 

Our Bureau of Animal Industry, in its Circu- 
lar No. 118, under date of November 6, 1907, 
cites the fact that of °2,052 random post-mortem 
examinations of human bodies, in Europe, 91 
per cent showed lesions of tuberculosis, and 
the tenth conclusion of that document reads, 
" While the danger to which public health is 
exposed through the use of milk from tubercu- 
lous cows is of a magnitude almost beyond con- 
ception, it is unfortunately only one among 
many dangers to which persons are exposed 
through the use of impure, infected and dirty 
milk." 

More startling than the foregoing, if possible, 
is the declaration which follows, taken from 
the public press of June 7, 1909: 



10 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 






Menace in Milk Straus Declares. 

" says human race faces extinction 
through tuberculosis in cattle. 

" Budapest , June 7. — The extinction of 
the human race through the use of tuber- 
culous milk, unless the world awakens to 
the gravity of the evil, was the direful 
prophecy of Nathan Straus, the New York 
philanthropist, made to-day before the 
International Dairy Congress. 

' ' He declared that the spread of tuber- 
culosis among both cattle and the human 
family is due to the use of tuberculous 
milk. Mr. Straus' paper was read by 
another delegate, the author being unable 
to attend. 

' ' l Tubercular cows bear healthy calves, ' 
he said, ' but straightway infect them with 
this disease through the milk they give 
their young. When the calves are weaned 
these diseased cows supply the germs of the 
White Plague to the human beings who 
use their milk. Thus, we are inviting 
the extermination of the dairy industry 
and of the human race, for this plague is 
increasing both among cattle and among 
men, and will increase like the spreading 
of a fire, so long as the milk swarming 
with tubercle bacilli is used as food for 
calves or babies. 

" i But we need not sit down in stupid 
helplessness. We have the tuberculin 
test to detect the infected animals and the 
Bang method of segregating the diseased 
cows. This will save the dairy herds, and 
we have the perfectly feasible method of 
saving the babies by pasteurizing all the 
milk that does not come from tuberculin- 
tested herds.' 

As for the consequences of dairymen 



i t 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 11 

selling tuberculous milk, — Mr. Straus 
pointed out that there has been in New 
York city in two years an increase of 33 
per cent in the number of new cases of 
tuberculosis. At this rate, he said, within 
a generation the great wealth of the 
American metropolis would be insufficient 
to provide support for the tuberculoid 
patients. 

' ' Bovine tuberculosis now costs the 
American farmer $14,000,000 a year, and 
the immediate killing of all the tubercu- 
lous dairy cows, if it could be effected, 
would cost a billion dollars, Mr. Straus 
said. The only safe alternative was the 
pasteurization of all milk from infected 
cows." 

Other authorities, including Prof. Irving 
Fisher, estimate the annual loss in the United 
States as high as $50,000,000. 

An English Summary 

But much more recent than either of the 
foregoing conclusions is Doctor Eastwood's Re- 
port to the Local Government Board, London, 
published in the British Medical Journal, ex- 
tracts from which appear in our Mulford's 
Veterinary Bulletin, for July, 1909. It shows 
his conclusions after an extended study in 
America of the pure milk question : 

1 i The disease is so widely disseminated 
and the economic obstacles to its elimi- 
nation are so exceedingly great that it is 
impossible, even by a generous interpreta- 
tion of the efforts which are being made, 
to put together tangible evidence of sub- 



12 BOViNE TUBERCULOSIS 

stantial success on the lines which have 
hitherto been followed. Tuberculosis pro- 
gresses so insidiously, persists so long be- 
fore manifesting its presence by physical 
signs, and has taken so firm a hold on the 
live stock of the country, that there is not 
the least hope of being able to stamp it out 
by the application of any simple and drastic 
measures which have been effective in 
eliminating other infectious diseases. 

" It is impossible to study American ex- 
periments of compensation without form- 
ing a definite opinion on that point. When 
a herd contains animals broken down with 
tuberculosis, it practically always contains 
also other animals in a less advanced but 
progressive stage of the disease. The mere 
elimination of the former animals does not 
produce a clean herd ; the other infected 
animals gradually develop the conditions 
of those already slaughtered and continue, 
by foecal and other discharges, to pass on 
the infection to new arrivals. So the process 
goes on indefinitely, and the payment of 
compensation for broken-down beasts is a 
positive encouragement for its continu- 
ance. Public money expended for this 
purpose is worse than wasted, by rewarding 
the farmer who is unwilling or unable 
to adopt effective measures of control ; it 
actually aids in the continued propagation 
of the disease, and so contributes to the 
further diminution of the food-producing 
value of the live stock in the country.' ' 

Now the writer positively knows that the 
Straus basis of hope is most fallacious, yet the 
above declarations contain truth enough to 
have caused a change of policy, and to have 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 13 

quickened his sense of duty, which is respon- 
sible for these pages, as he feels that the world 
has been a loser in consequence of his repeated 
hindrances. And just here it may be well to 
explain what right, if any, he has to entertain 
such a feeling : 

Medical subjects have interested me from 
childhood. I have been duly matriculated, 
and have studied medicine, yet without a 
thought of ever becoming a practitioner, and 
can not be classed as a physician — much less 
as a veterinary. I am neither a stock-raiser, 
a packer, a breeder, nor yet a dairyman, but 
have long been familiar with all these branches, 
and, over forty years ago made a discovery — 
still undisclosed, through no fault of mine — ■ 
which should be worth millions to our packers, 
and prove a blessing to the world at large. 
But the wise reader will focus his attention 
on the present message, rather than on the 
messenger : 

Bovine Tuberculosis 

The cause of this appalling scourge can be 
summarized with eighteen letters, formed into 
the two simple words, pulmonary passivity! 
Again, eight letters will more briefly, though 
less accurately, express the same disgraceful 
fact — idle feet! 

Our civilization is proud to contemplate its 
achievement of the twelve-gallon cow, with her 
tons of golden butter, and food experts assure 
us that such creatures do a big day's work in 



14 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

thus producing over three pounds of milk and 
nearly three ounces of butter every hour, month 
in and month out — which certainly can not be 
denied — and ' ' needs no special exercise. ' ' But 
the thoughtful citizen, as he contemplates this 
marvelous product of man's art, will flush with 
righteous indignation as he contemplates the 
criminality of our present dairy system, and 
our S. P. C. A. should cause the incarceration 
of all those who persist in its maintenance along 
present lines, since, with all its commendable 
scientific features, it presents a woeful lack of 
balance — is lop-sided — and, hence the trouble. 

We have trebled the alimentary capacity of 
these faithful servants and sextupled the scope 
of their lacteal, or mammary glands, but have 
absolutely ignored the reasonable demands of 
their muscular and respiratory systems, leaving 
them in what can not be called " innocuous," 
but rather iniquitous ' ' desuetude ' y ! Ten thou- 
sand facts can be presented in support of this 
contention, and I challenge the world to adduce 
a single one that tends to invalidate it ! 

Laboratory tests have been invaluable in the 
development of our animal industries and in 
mastering the diseases of our live stock ; cul- 
ture tubes, serums and antitoxins have been 
most serviceable in various fields of effort. The 
microscope, too, is simply indispensable, con- 
stantly, and yet there are crises in which none 
of these adjuncts will avail, and the case in 
hand seems to the writer one of them. 

Attention has been too much concentrated 
on the tubercle bacilli, and so much reliance 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 15 

placed upon the efficacy of tuberculin tests, 
that a broad, common-sense view of the situa- 
tion has clearly been neglected. 

One influential writer on this subject, after 
glancing over advance sheets of the foregoing, 
said, "Huh! according to this, then, all the 
dairyman has to do is to get a good dog and 
boy to stir up the herd at intervals, and see to 
it that the cows get some genuine exercise ' 
— which any practical man must see would 
simply be making a bad situation incompara- 
bly worse ! 



Modern Appliances 

The limit seems to have been reached by one 
expert who discovers deadly germs lurking and 
lingering about the teeth of milch cows, and 
who urges the necessity of bovine tooth-brushes, 
and of some antiseptic lotion, or dentrifice to 
arrest the danger. 

This item might be accredited to the funny 
editor and dismissed with a laugh, but for the 
fact that we read, in August, 1909, of a certain 
Ohio herd of twenty-four Jerseys, valued at 
over $3,000 a head, whose owner I have long 
known, and who actually bathes his animals 
daily, arrays them in fine, white linen, and 
brushes their teeth three times each day. 

The literature of a famous dairy corporation 
attests that no visitor can enter its immaculate 
stables until clad in specially provided sterilized 
raiment, just as when one is admitted to the 
operating-room to witness a major surgical feat 



16 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

which is being performed upon some royal 
scion. 

While perhaps not in danger of becoming 
orientalized to the extent of having our sacred 
bulls and cows, it is but reasonable to expect 
that these scientific precautions will ere long be 
carried to the extent of having the individual 
cow incased in a sterilized, hermetically sealed 
casket and chemically pure air supplied, as to 
deep-sea divers, and sterilized food rations — 
predigested, if perchance it can be proven that 
it will pay. 

The bovine manicurist will, of course, soon 
be in evidence, but the evolution of a com- 
petent valet de dent, or whatever the wielder of 
the bovine tooth-brush may be termed, will be 
slow, naturally; hence the propriety of supply- 
ing the queen of the golden-print butter-ball 
with removable grinders, which can be treated 
in a wholly reliable chemical bath after each 
meal. The old distillery slop-diet, if adopted 
for a season or two, would eat away the natural 
teeth and prove a feasible form of painless 
dentistry, and thus appease the humanitarian. 

By Nature Immune 

But the writer's bent is in another direction, 
and tends toward the simple life rather than 
to the infinite complexities and perplexities of 
this strenuous age. The patient ox of a past 
generation is a pleasant memory to him. Old 
' ' Bright ' ' and ' ■ Line ' ? he counted among his 
earliest friends, and, with bare feet and curry- 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 17 

comb in hand he used to scramble over their 
huge forms and minister to their comfort as 
they lay chewing the cud after a hard day's 
work, yoked to a cart — and, oh ! that sad part- 
ing when it was whispered that on the morrow 
the butcher would have them ! 

But certain it is that no tuberculous tenden- 
cies were manifest in those massive frames. 

Such a yoke of oxen would be about as hard 
to find to-day as is the buffalo on the plains, 
yet tubercles played no part in the extermina- 
tion of any of those noble specimens. 

The writer has more than once remarked 
that he had this dairy scourge so well in hand 
that he could at pleasure transfer it to the livery 
stables, even, if desired. His listeners have 
probably viewed him either as a magician, or 
a conceited lunatic, according to their respective 
temperaments. Yet he could do exactly that, 
and perhaps can most vividly present the follies 
of the past, by explaining just how this result 
could be achieved. 

Now Tuberculosis in our domestic animals 
is altogether unnatural — simply an innovation 
of our modern civilization — the offspring of 
human greed ! 

The writer can claim no originality in his 
plan for foisting this horrible disease onto 
livery stables, for he would proceed, precisely 
as avaricious men have unwittingly done in 
saddling the plague onto their dairy herds : He 
would not for a moment allow one of the horses 
to be driven, or even tolerate his being turned 
loose in a large pasture, nor, in fact, given any 



18 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

fair chance to do anything that would bring 
the semblance of active exercise upon the lungs, 
for it would certainly defeat the success of this 
proposed experiment, which aims to win the 
booby-prize, by inducing tuberculosis in the 
horse ! 

1 i Black Beauty ' ' might never evolve many 
stomachs, with cud-chewing accessories, even 
to a rudimentary degree, nor ever seriously 
demoralize our dairy-product exchanges, but 
as surely as cream rises, if we ever apply dairy- 
farm methods to this noble animal, denying 
him both pulmonary and muscular exercise, he 
will soon be able to vie with even our regis- 
tered, prize-winning Ayrshires, as a producer 
of tubercles. 



Victims of Greed 

If our faithful milk purveyor, with wasted 
lungs and fleeting breath, could quote Scripture 
to her avaricious owner, the last mournful moo 
would doubtless be blended with this text: 
" The zeal of thine house hath consumed me! " 
And among her posthumous works might be 
found a carefully engrossed petition to the 
Humane Society, in the name of countless 
slaughtered innocents, to either have the prin- 
ciples of saving common sense applied to the 
modern dairy farm, or else its speedy suppres- 
sion decreed ! 

It would seem as if any one possessed of good 
" horse-sense " could see that, while the latest 
triumphs of science are utilized in most 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 19 

branches of dairying, the grossest follies are 
still practiced in others. 

We have taken the natural cow and trans- 
formed her, by persistent efforts, along prede- 
termined lines of breeding, coupled with an 
enforced, sinister environment, until to-day 
she is the most abnormal of quadrupeds and 
naturally proves a serious menace to our criss- 
cross civilization. 

This alleged cause may seem inadequate to 
produce such an appalling result; but just 
contemplate for a moment the power of per- 
sistency — the cumulative effect of neglecting 
vital organs for ten or twenty consecutive 
generations ! 

There is a correlation which must obtain in 
the physical organs, if direst consequences are 
to be averted, and this interdependence of lung 
and muscle in the cow has been strangely over- 
looked and ignored for a century. 



Respiration 

The lungs are one of the marvels of the 
living organism, and, like the heart, can never 
get even u an hour off." Their involuntary, 
or automatic, blood-purifying functions can not 
be dispensed with for a single moment, even 
during sleep, and that mild, passive process is 
constant throughout the silent vigils, from 
life's first gasp till the last. 

But critical observation teaches that these 
marvelous pulmonary tissues can not retain 



20 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

their integrity and tone indefinitely without 
active exercise — the food specialist to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

I recently attended an illustrated lecture 
where a model dairy establishment was thrown 
upon the screen, and the speaker took special 
pains to point out the yard, adjoining each 
stable, into which the animals were turned 
daily, "to get all needed exercise." 

The agricultural college student, or aspiring 
dairy apprentice, who should watch these yards 
for a day, to learn just how much is required, 
would be forced to the conclusion that both 
Nature and the owner of the herd were ■ ■ mind- 
curists," depending on holding the animals 
in " the right thought," and in daily adminis- 
tering to them judicious doses of exercise by 
what is known as " absent treatment," for cer- 
tainly no physical effort is there put forth. 

The landsman, taking his first ocean voyage, 
is most impressed perhaps by the conduct of 
the officer on the bridge, who is so often seen 
systematically striding back and forth, and his 
mind may revert to the caged animals at the 
Zoo that so often walk up and down before the 
grating, and it may gradually dawn upon him, 
as his own limbs begin to stiffen, that daily 
exercise is essential to health, even at sea. A 
human prisoner may sometimes be seen pacing 
the corridor, making his tally-mark on the wall 
with each circuit. But what farmer's boy ever 
saw Bossy do anything at all analogous? 

The struggle for existence keeps the wild 
animals active and healthy; yet who can 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 21 

blame the unsophisticated, honest, flat-footed 
and surfeited cow for not having more sense 
than her owner? In the last analysis it is the 
Bank-balance bacillus which destroys our dairy 
herds. 



Vaccination 

After the reader is fully grounded in the 
conviction that man's lust for gold is all that 
has precipitated this bovine crisis, let him con- 
template the grotesque ingenuity of the genus 
homo, who, without abating his greed one iota, 
calls in Science to stay the plague by vaccinat- 
ing against tuberculosis, " and the people say 
'Amen!' n But not all of them, fortunately, 
for there are many who do not believe that 
" the hair of the dog will cure the bite " in this 
instance, nor that Science, with such tactics, 
can ever evolve from our nurseries the long- 
heralded " super-man/ ' 

I could name conscientious dairymen who 
pride themselves on their sound sense, and 
who feel that they exemplify it when they an- 
nounce, that, regardless of climatic conditions 
their herds are turned out into the yard daily for 
at least an hour. And who has not seen these 
pitiable creatures poke and hobble out to es- 
cape the threatening shouts and gestures of 
the hired man? 

The unfortunate brutes are thoroughly de- 
naturalized, and, during the several cold 
months of the year, stand outside, shivering, 



22 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

with their usually sleek coats bristling like that 
of an enraged porcupine. Then there are two 
or three score of rainy days when they appear 
to be equally miserable while in the open. 
Flies prove a torment for at least three months 
of the year, and whatever may be charged up 
against these pests, they do give the cow a cer- 
tain amount of ' ( incidental protection ' ' from 
the ravages of tuberculosis, by provoking a 
special form of exercise. 

Possibly, for one hundred days in the year 
the animal feels grateful for being turned out 
into God's sunshine, but all inclination to 
move a step — or even to stand — has been taken 
from her. So, with logy, distended sides, she 
lies down and at once gets busy chewing the 
cud, just as the old-fashioned farmer's wife, 
even in her recreations, was always active with 
her knitting, for the work of each of these rivals 
of Job is never done. 

I fancy I hear some hard-headed rural resi- 
dents I have known, saying, " What do I care? 
'Tain't my fault. I sent the old fool out to take 
all the exercise she needed, and if too lazy to 
do it, she'll be a bigger loser than I shall!" 
Of course the reader must understand that these 
words have reference to the unreasoning cow, 
and not to the guardian angel of the rustic's 
home. 

But sending the poor victims of our rapacity 
out into the open air for an hour or two daily, 
to stand or to lie down and sleepily ruminate, 
will never save the unfortunates from the fatal 
decrees of both Nature and the Veterinary. 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 23 

Theories 

It is interesting to note how every expert and 
official in this field gradually evolves some sort 
of an explanation for existing conditions, and 
here are a few of the very latest which I have 
noted : " It is one of those inscrutable plagues 
which came unbidden, and will gradually wear 
itself out and subside. " Another says, " The 
stable is the source of infection, and cleanli- 
ness, windows, sunlight, whitewash and other 
disinfectants are our only hope." While a dis- 
tinguished veterinary tells me that the mischief 
creeps in from neglect of the tuberculin test 
with registered bulls. 

Later yet, I was informed that the antidotes 
for the disease are " sunlight, air, food and 
cleanliness/ ' whereas these four factors com- 
bined can never give immunity, however essen- 
tial they may each be to animal life. 

Pulmonary exercise are the two magic words, 
however, which really count ! 

Doctor Henry G. Piffard, A. M., LL.D., on 
May 24, 1909, read a paper entitled, " Some 
Problems Connected with Tuberculosis, n before 
the Medical Society of the County of New York, 
and to which my attention has recently been 
called. It later appeared in the New York 
Medical Journal, of June 19, 1909, and may 
now be secured from the A. R. Elliott Pub- 
lishing Company. 

The paper is largely technical, and displays 
much learning. Several paragraphs have a 
direct bearing on matters herein discussed and 
surely are more in harmony with the writer's 



24 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

conclusions than are any of the above quota- 
tions. 

Dr. Piffard says: 

1 i The importance of bovine tuberculosis 
is second only to that of the human affec- 
tion. * * * If pulmonary and other clinical 
forms of tuberculosis are in all cases depend- 
ent on the tubercle bacillus as we know it, 
and if it is a separate and wholly independ- 
ent organism, then every effort should be 
made looking towards its destruction, and 
the most strenuous endeavors should be 
made to guard human, and, I may say, 
the bovine body from coming in contact 
with it. 

' ' On the other hand, if the germ is orig- 
inally vegetarian, but facultative carnivor- 
ous, then the task of totally destroying it 
is almost hopeless.' ' 

Now the reader may safely assume, from 
what has already been said, that I am not as 
much troubled over these germs as is Doctor 
Piffard, whatever their origin may prove to be. 
But, thanks to a discovery which will be clearly 
set forth in that book already referred to, "How 
to Increase Cow Efficiency Thirty Per Cent," 
I expect to make plain that these destroying 
microscopic pests can be forever muzzled. 

But to quote Doctor Piffard again : 

" If we take a given herd in which each 
individual is equally exposed to the dan- 
gers of infection, we find that only certain 
ones of them succumb * * * due mani- 
festly to the fact that some are capable of 
destroying or neutralizing the infecting 
agent, while others are deficient in resist- 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 25 

ing power. Every creature possesses a 
certain degree of resistance to infectious 
disease, and it is the loss or impairment 
of this natural immunity that enables the 
germ to overcome and destroy its host." 

While fully accepting as true the assertions 
of this quotation, and his contention that man's 
cupidity is at the bottom of it all, I differ with 
the Doctor as to the four causes, which to him 
are most obvious, to wit: "Inbreeding, stimu- 
lating foods, stable coddling and early breed- 
ing." That these are four deplorable abuses 
I readily concede; but, in spite of them all, by 
virtue of the disclosure above alluded to, in 
connection with improved milch cows, I can 
insure immunity. 

Nothing could be truer than Doctor PifFard's 
remark that — 

1 i the vital organs in the thoracic cavity 
of the high-bred Jersey cow are neglected, 
while those at the pelvic end are raised to 
the seat of honor — an hypertrophied udder 
but with atrophied lungs. The dairyman 
and the breeder have sown the wind, and 
now are reaping the whirlwind." 

As to remedial steps, he says: 

' i Space will not permit of definite sug- 
gestions as to the proper course to be pur- 
sued; but certainly a reform in breeding 
and feeding, with abolition of close walled 
stables will tend to restore a measure of 
natural immunity, and possibly artificial 
immunization may do the rest." 

Again, and for the last time — perhaps tanta- 



26 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

lizingly — I declare, that this same discovery — 
the most notable of my life — vouchsafes healthy 
herds, without exacting;any reform in breeding, 
feeding, or in stable walls, and as for artificial 
immunization , I abominate it ! 



Encouraging Prognosis 

The object of this short treatise is to convince 
people of existing perils and of the enormities of 
the present dairy system, but at the same time 
to assure them, that, without destroying the 
smallest portion of the present establishments, 
bovine tuberculosis may be easily and perma- 
nently eradicated, and the dairy industry 
speedily ushered into an era of prosperity such 
as none of those depending upon it — which 
really embraces the entire community — have 
dared to anticipate. 

Nearly twenty per cent of our present herds 
should be classed as tuberculous. This quar- 
antinable portion I would undertake to restore 
to full and safe fellowship, on the " no cure, 
no pay " plan, or otherwise, as might be agreed, 
thanks to a specific remedy prepared by a 
formula of my own; — that is, I would if en- 
gaged in that line. 

I say very little about it, and care even less, 
because within a year or so there should be no 
further use for it, since bovine tuberculosis is 
doomed, if people will but be wise. 

What I do bank on, however, is the per- 
petual preventive — a sort of " lung lift " which 
is fully protected, and, while costing some- 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 27 

thing, will add to the dairy profits from 
the start and make the industry a pleasure 
henceforth, to cow and owner alike — instead of 
a subject for dread as at present — and become 
a source of positive gain to humanity at large. 
It is a genuine lung tonic and restorer, com- 
prising seventeen specific and absolutely indis- 
pensable features for practical success. 

This is glory enough for one booklet ; but the 
issue of the promised companion volume will 
presage the advent of the super-cow — so much 
superior and more desirable will she be in 
every respect to anything at present known. 

Bovine Tuberculosis originated in the herds 
of English cattle breeders, and from them has 
been disseminated the wide w r orld over. It is 
a pity that their meritorious labors should have 
entailed such a blight upon dumb animals, and 
a just reproach upon our modern civilization. 
I have studied the subject on the ground, in 
several widely separated countries, and am 
fairly familiar with world conditions to-day, 
and therefore speak with confidence. 

The horrible nightmare of the present may 
easily be rendered but a passing shadow on 
the bright picture of human progress, and 
" the good mooly cow M — no longer a pest and 
plague-breeder — may ere long be safely restored 
to her niche, and once more become the idol of 
the Nursery. 

If any challenge the correctness of my con- 
clusions, I hold in reserve an altogether dis- 
tinct and much more conclusive line of facts 
for just such an emergency. 



28 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

Later 

In this month of April, 1910, as these pages 
go to press a symposium on the pure milk ques- 
tion is appearing in one of the leading New- 
York dailies, and confirms what the author has 
maintained for years regarding pasteurization, 
and from which he makes condensed quota- 
tions. There are able-bodied men whom he 
knows that can drink with impunity a quart or 
two of normal milk, yet who find a single glass 
of the pasteurized product distressingly indi- 
gestible, a fact which should cause parents to 
reflect. While hesitating personally to suggest 
commercialism as a factor in the problem, he 
finds others who are less sensitive on this 
point : 

Dr. Louis Fischer, after years of experience 
as a specialist in the Willard Parker, River- 
side, and Sydenham hospitals, is just issuing the 
third edition of his ' ' Diseases of Infancy and 
Childhood," a one-thousand-page volume, in 
which he declares that it has been absolutely 
proven that the use of sterilized milk has pro- 
duced in infants, scurvy, rickets, and marasmus, 
and says it is his opinion that the persistent 
taking of pasteurized fluid might produce the 
same in a lesser degree, though not yet as defi- 
nitely proven as with sterilization. 

" Pasteurized milk is essentially dead 
milk, for the life in it has been destroyed. 
All milk to be palatable must have life in 
it. Pasteurization also gives too many op- 
portunities to those who would mix milk 
from all sources — good, bad and indiffer- 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 29 

ent, and by treatment convert it into a 
seemingly sweet and wholesome product, 
which, however, still retains all its injur- 
ious properties. Contaminated milk can 
no more be made suitable for food by pas- 
teurization than a piece of tainted meat 
can be made fit to eat by boiling it. 

' ' The main thing is to get milk taken 
from absolutely healthy cows, cooled at 
once, and then bottled in the country and 
kept cold during transportation. Pure 
and fresh raw milk is an excellent food, 
and it has been demonstrated that it will 
destroy the germs of cholera and typhoid 
placed within it." 

Dr. Fischer finds that the medical profession 
is abandoning the use of pasteurized milk as it 
has the old sterilization process. 

Dr. Ernest J, Lederle, president of the New 
York City Board of Health, thinks pasteuriza- 
tion should be recommended while milk comes 
to that city from so many scattered and varied 
sources, as a makeshift till a reliable supply 
can be obtained. 

A prominent business man is named and 
quoted in this same series of articles, regarding 
his experience while in another city with his 
wife and children of one and two years : 

" I could not get raw milk and was ob- 
liged to get pasteurized. We noticed that 
the children both began to fail rapidly in 
health and were tormented with intestinal 
ailments. The elder child lost nine pounds 
and was rapidly going into a decline. On 
our return to New York we obtained excel- 
lent bottled milk and within a few hours 



30 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

the children were better and their recovery 
was a matter of less than a week. In the 
light of this experience I look upon pas- 
teurization as a Modern Moloch which 
makes victims of helpless children. " 

Dr. S. J. Essenson finds too much of the bu- 
reaucratic in the New York Board of Health 
and urges its complete reorganization. He 
says: 

' ' From the viewpoint of the laboratory 
it may seem to the bacteriologists that all 
milk should be pasteurized ; but in practice 
it is found to be actually harmful. It is the 
legitimate successor of the old boiled-milk 
obsession which dates back for centuries. 
As an inspector of a large Brooklyn dis- 
trict I saw many hundreds of babies and 
watched the effect on them of the boiled 
sterilized and much-exploited laboratory 
milk, and found the children suffering 
from maladies and discomforts from which 
they were relieved when I prescribed pure 
country milk in its natural raw state. Milk 
contains many valuable constituents such 
as the calcium phosphates. The heat re- 
quired in pasteurization destroys them, 
and as a result the baby develops rickets. 
His bones are denied this salt and become 
soft. 

" There are millions of germs constantly 
about us, and the reason we are not carried 
off by a thousand ills is because of the 
resistance to them which is made by the 
human system." 

Raymond A. Pearson, New York State Com- 
missioner of Agriculture, gives most decided 
testimony against pasteurization and urges 
Federal control. 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 31 

Dr. L. E. LaFetra, a New York specialist in 
pediatrics, thinks pasteurization should be done 
at home, if at all, since when attempted in a 
commercial way, the dollar interposes and often 
leaves the milk worse than at first. 

One of the recent numbers of the Washing- 
ton Medical Annals attacks the pasteurization 
of milk. 

Dr. Theron W. Kilmer, the inventor of two 
types of pasteurizers, declares himself a pessi- 
mist on the whole subject. 

* * Nothing can be said in favor of pas- 
teurized milk as a steady diet, for children 
do not thrive upon it. Why this is I do 
not pretend to say. We know that pas- 
teurization makes changes in the con- 
stituents of milk, and takes away that 
property, whatever it may be, which sus- 
tains and invigorates the child . I believe in 
laboratory research, but it does not follow 
that when a chemist says such and such 
a milk is good for children, that in practice 
it will prove to be the case. Milk once 
pasteurized ceases to be a cow product and 
becomes something else. 

' ' One of the great dangers of pasteurized 
milk is the false sense of security which it 
gives to mothers. Because milk is pas- 
teurized they permit it to stand in a bottle 
about in a hot room all day where it will 
rapidly cultivate bacteria by the million. 
They will even neglect ordinary cleanli- 
ness. The ideal condition is to have pure 
fresh milk." 

Dr. Joseph H. Bainton, who several years 
ago made researches into pasteurization, de- 



32 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

clares that he is not in favor of having milk 
treated by the commercial process. 

" In fact I would prefer to give to chil- 
dren fresh raw milk guaranteed and cer- 
tified to be pure." 

Dr. R. 0. Brooks, director of the Official 
Testing Laboratory, finds six times as many 
bacteria in the pasteurized milk as in the raw 
product. 

u The milk which has been pasteurized 
is more liable to the influence of any dis- 
ease germs than it was before, and must be 
kept at a low temperature and used as soon 
as possible." 

Dr. Thomas Darlington, former Commis- 
sioner of Health, says pasteurization may be 
good, but that he does not believe in it nor in 
the public cooking of food. 

Dr. Revel B. Kimball, a specialist in pedia- 
trics, opposes commercial pasteurization since 
it can become a " cloak for fraud." 

' ' The principal object which its distribu- 
tors have in mind is to heat it just enough 
to keep it sweet. They are inclined to use 
whatever they can get and trust to the 
process to conceal its inferior quality. I 
have found that it produces scurvy at 
times, causing swelling of the gums and 
soreness of the legs." 

Dr. Chas. F. Chandler, professor of chemis- 
try at Columbia University, lacks experience 
with pasteurization but says a good word for 
bacteria : 

' l They are mostly good and well mean- 
ing, and there are only a few really bad 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 33 

ones. There are about one hundred dif- 
ferent kinds in the mouth of man, all of 
which are kept busy. They start in the 
process of digestion ; they are very useful 
and should be respected. It is hardly 
possible to get any liquid so sterile that 
there is no life of any kind in it." 

It may be profitable to query just how much 
healthier and happier a knowledge of the exist- 
ence of bacteria has made humanity, and to 
reflect that our nonagenarian ancestors de- 
parted this life in blissful ignorance of these 
ubiquitous, warring, bacterial hordes. 

Latest 

The following startling statements are con- 
tained in a resolution introduced in the House 
of Representatives, April 14, by Herbert Parsons 
of New York, proposing an investigation by 
the Committee on Agriculture into the alarm- 
ing spread of the great ' ' white plague ' ' through 
the medium of infected milk, cream, butter 
and cheese. 

An exhaustive investigation of this whole 
subject has just been completed by our Bureau 
of Animal Industry, Mr. Parsons obtaining an 
.advance copy of the Bureau's reports. 

Included with the report is a most interesting 
monograph on the subject of the relation of 
the tuberculous cow to the public health, in 
which the author, E. C. Schroeder, M. D. V., 
says: 

" The need for this inquiry is empha- 
sized by the knowledge that the commonest 



34 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 

and most important disease of cows is also 
the commonest and most important disease 
of mankind. * * * During 1908, accord- 
ing to the most reliable figures obtain- 
able, 160,000 human lives were prema- 
turely ended by tuberculosis in the United 
States alone, and this enormous number 
does not include the deaths hastened by 
tuberculosis, but chargeable to other im- 
mediate causes. Every one of these deaths 
was due to infectious material that had 
its origin within and was expelled from 
the bodies of tuberculous persons and 
animals. * * * 

' ' Milk is so often infected with tubercle 
bacilli that unless we know it to be de- 
rived from cows that are certainly free 
from tuberculosis, it is not safe to use it in 
a raw state. Tubercle bacilli in milk are 
transferred to the cream, butter and cheese 
made from it and may occur in these 
products in greater concentration than in 
the milk from which they are derived. 

"An excellent medium for the preser- 
vation of the life and virulence of the tu- 
bercle bacilli is found in butter by reason 
of its moist, bland, opaque character. * * * 

6 ' The elimination of tuberculosis from 
the dairy herd is urgently requested, not 
only because the protection of public health 
requires it, but also because tuberculosis 
among cattle is a serious cause of pecuniary 
loss, so serious, indeed, that from the 
strictly economic point of view it must be 
regarded as the most important problem 
that those interested in animal husbandry 
can undertake to solve.' ' 
The report of the Bureau adds that 

' ' the testing of infected butter has been 
continued, and in the later experiments 



BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 35 

of this nature the conclusions reached 
through former work have been confirmed. 
Tubercle bacilli will retain their vitality 
and virulence while in butter under com- 
mon market conditions for at least five 
months/ ' 
The Bureau's unpublished report on this 
subject elaborates this statement as follows: 

"It was also discovered that dairies 
which distribute milk infected with tu- 
bercle bacilli do so intermittently and not 
continuously or uninterruptedly. For ex- 
ample, one dairy tested on ten consecutive 
days was found to be distributing infected 
milk on the second, third and eighth days, 
and milk apparently free from tubercle 
bacilli on the remaining seven days. 

" This is very important, because the 
number of infected dairies rather than the 
percentage of infected milk determines the 
extent to which the public is exposed to 
virulent tubercle bacilli through the use of 
milk and dairy products. " 

Another section of the report shows that 
tests made in 1907 "on a large proportion 
of the herds supplying milk to the city of 
Washington ' ' showed that about 17 per cent 
of all the dairy cattle were infected with 
tuberculosis. The Bureau estimates the annual 
loss from w r hite plague among dairy cattle at 
$23,000,000. 

The Parsons resolution proposes that the 
Committee on Agriculture investigate with a 
view to recommending legislation looking to 
the inspection and making of butter and milk 
in such a way as to prevent the consumption 
of infected products of this sort. 



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